AstroBoy

Kash's dive was pretty sweet and all six guys early on had a few fireworks but it's like a prelude to the meat of this with FBI and Unholy Alliance. It's their standard good stuff and they mix up some of their spots, turning the double whippersnapper into tandem armbars for instance. Tajiri, naturally was incredible and electric here. Ultimately Tajiri and Whipwreck tread water with another victory but I echo the thought that Tajiri specifically could be such a bigger thing at this point.

This came together nicely after a somewhat meandering route to get to the heat and they committed to having Doring fight his way through some peril to set up Roadkill cleaning house. Dinero isn't much at all but things mostly clicked here, champs got to hit their trademark stuff, and score a nice win.

This was awesome. Of course the Murakami vs Ishikawa stuff is fantastic but Otsuka brought a lot of presence and some great throws too. Yone kept up and got the submission with a nasty camel clutch. ***1/4

I thought this was a real solid TV match. Robbie struggles on offense and doesn't do much but at least it allowed Dinsmore to make a nice comeback and look good with his execution on everything. Snappy and effective.

I enjoyed seeing a brisk paced LMS match for a change and that was the biggest asset here, plus a well done schmozz finish. I thought Flanagan messing around doing Russian leg sweeps was a little goofy and didn't love his right hands but this was a spirited TV deal.

Really fun match. Rave is kind of sloppy and raw but has some energy and some good spots and Caprice had enough charisma and some seasoning to help carry this off. They escalate hot moves back and forth and keep a great pace before Caprice shuts him down with a cutter. Really all you could ask out of a deal like this.

I thought this was a good take charge Ogawa performance and he left me most impressed, carrying portions are of this with his poise and savvy. I do think Ikeda feels a half step off at moments but it might be his mesh with Misawa here as I found Misawa's outing to be a tad listless. Marufuji does fine getting beaten on and gets a few moments to shine as he progresses little by little before Ogawa shuts him down with a backdrop hold. ***

This was serviceable. Akiyama does a good job punishing Shiga on the mat, grounding Morishima when he gets going, and generally helping out Kanemaru when he needs the tide turned. The ending did feel a bit abrupt but this was mostly good.

Hey this was really good fun. Tracy did a great job kind of keeping things moving and had some fantastic punches on Ian's nasty cut. Sabu did his part and this was just a breezy fun three way. ***

I thought this went too long and really lacked lots of connective tissue to make it very much, but they have some great moments. Rising Son is a graceful flyer but it's Super Dragon here who shines. He escalates things with a pendulum swing into the wall, takes a nutty bump into the wall after missing a corner charge. They do space the spots out really well and that helped this along too.

This was not very good. It's young guys going out and doing a lot of spots with not much at all to hold it together. Reyes in particular looks like a good athlete here but the match never amounts to much, just guys hitting stuff with varying degrees of execution.

This was awesome. Sasaki slowly withstanding Kawada down the stretch and overcoming him has such a palpable energy, worthy of a climactic ending. Kawada of course sells brilliantly and keeps trying to disdainfully assert himself with strikes but Sasaki outguns him in the end to cap off match of the night. ***3/4

I loved it. Some fantastic individual sells from both Kawada and Tenzan after taking headbutts and punches, respectively. Great story of Tenzan dropping him early but Kawada having more in the tank and turning it around after his right hand lands. Kawada gets the powerbomb and moves on. ***3/4

Wonderful pride-driven slugfest. Hashimoto not engaging Choshu at the start is great stuff. Of course they hit hard and sell well as they trade back and forth. Hashimoto specifically has some incredible facial sells to get things over. I didn't hate the finish either. ***1/2

I was much lower on this and wasn't wild about it. Decent war of attrition and Kojima's tope was nuts but the effects of the armwork just felt arbitrary even if sold well. Just didn't click all the way for me. ***

This was good not great. Nagata here has more tools and can cut off Tenzan by going to kicks, going to the knee, or trying to take it to the mat. And they develop a nice dynamic of Nagata finding more ways to shut him down when Tenzan gets going with headbutts or Mongolian chops. Tenzan kills him with a sit out tombstone and overcomes him with a moonsault for the win. Tenzan being so lackadaisical and uninteresting on offense early holds this back from being more than good. ***1/4

This is essentially a showcase for Helms and he's sort of too vanilla to really take advantage of it, so there's a lot of tepid work and taunting from Shane. It's a decent match and Noble has a nice northern lights suplex for a comeback before Shane shuts him down.

This wasn't much. Functionally fine but little in the way of urgency and just a lot of telid clubbering. Undertaker winning with a DDT was a little odd, overall this was just kind of there.

This was pretty fun and Rock and Kane are not a bad pairing here at all. It's mostly a brawl to start and then Kane turns the tide in the crowd. From there Kane can overwhelm Rock, who does a nice job with his charisma and urgency to fight back. Angle comes out and they utilize the interference real well before Kane gets a hell of a chokeslam for the win. A real nice mesh and a good match.

Not much to this as the ref start largely overshadows it. Regal gets a few snug flurries and looks aggressive but Austin mostly beats on him from the outset. But they keep it brisk and move it along nicely. Regal gets the cheap fast count rollup to steal one.

Fun cluster between over acts so it's hard for this to miss while it lasts. To their credit, they do tease some near table breaks with partners running in to move the table from harm's way, so credit to them for adding a little thought to this. Dudleys 3D Edge for the win.

This was solid enough. They get right into it with a rugged pace and Test executes all his power stuff just fine. Benoit beats on him until Test makes a comeback with more power moves but Trish pushes him off the rope for a screwy finish.

Yeah this is really really great and Flair shows so many different shades of vulnerabilities and desperation down the stretch. Even before that Windham goes between big bruiser and sympathetic bumper in the earlier moments. Plus nasty short punches from both guys. Flair in particular is great here.

I watched the Vader vs. Dustin Clash match yesterday and it held up better than I ever liked before. But I was blown away by how good their Saturday Night match from fall of 92 was. It's just about there with the Clash match for me.